Sleep Apnea in candidate

[onepointfivethumbs]

Looking at rushing ANG squadrons or doing AFRES "Civil Path to Wings" once I finish my degree.

I had weird palpitations at night and went to a cardiologist to get it checked out, who was adamant that I had severe Obstructive Sleep Apnea and referred me to an ENT to do a sleep study. In the meantime I did a holter that showed some scattered PAC's and some runs of AVNRT SVT that had no clear trigger and weren't solely at night.

I did the sleep study which showed an AHI of 9.5, "mild" OSA, and the tech also wanted to diagnose me with restless leg syndrome but it's never bugged me and I don't want to take benzos.

DoDi 6130.03 (the MEPS manual) says that Current diagnosis and treatment of OSA and Willis-Ekbom/RLS are disqualifying, and SVT that has been ablated and with a 3-month clean EKG is OK

The AMWG (Wright-Patt waiver guide) is very friendly to catheter ablation of arrhythmia for all FC, and they seem willing to write waivers for FC II and FC III for OSA for continued CPAP use, but says the ACS and AETC will not review FC1/1A waivers for OSA.

My plan was to lose (honestly quite a bit of weight) and get back to doing cardio, which should put me below the <5 AHI criteria for being sleep-apnea free, as well as get the EP study and ablation done. I figure that I can make a strong case for not having current diagnosis and treatment which should get me out of the woods with MEPS, however I don't know what to do with the flight physical.

Should I press for an ETP since it'd be multi-crew aircraft and I would only need to maintain an FCII after UPT? Or am I stuck looking at RPA/ABM and any dreams of UPT/CSO are out the door?

[GreenArc]

15 hours ago, onepointfivethumbs said:

My plan was to lose (honestly quite a bit of weight) and get back to doing cardio, which should put me below the <5 AHI criteria for being sleep-apnea free, as well as get the EP study and ablation done. I figure that I can make a strong case for not having current diagnosis and treatment which should get me out of the woods with MEPS, however I don't know what to do with the flight physical.

I wish I could offer some insight and not a question to you, but would you mind if I asked where you've seen the <5 AHI as the criteria for being sleep-apnea free? Is that an AF reg? I've seen it stated some places online, but not finding anything official from AF flight docs. Not doubting you, just genuinely curious!

Thank you!

[onepointfivethumbs]

8 minutes ago, GreenArc said:

I wish I could offer some insight and not a question to you, but would you mind if I asked where you've seen the <5 AHI as the criteria for being sleep-apnea free? Is that an AF reg? I've seen it stated some places online, but not finding anything official from AF flight docs. Not doubting you, just genuinely curious!

Thank you!

https://www.afrl.af.mil/Portals/90/Documents/711/USAFSAM/USAF-waiver-guide-201202.pdf?ver=CfL6CVKyrAbqyXS7A-OX_A%3D%3D

Mentions RDI <5 as "effective therapy" and the American Sleep Association defines <5 as "Normal", 5-15 as "Mild", 15-30 as "Moderate" and 30+ as "Severe", the referenced material in the AMWG comes from the ASA

[GreenArc]

Right on--thank you so much, and all the best to you on your quest. I'm in a similar-ish boat and in the MEPs process now, Lord willing moving to a successful FC1 after. Feel free to reach out/PM anytime as I'd be happy to provide any insight I can.

Edited February 10, 2021 by GreenArc